Friday, January 06, 2006
Maybe I Should Have Had a Donut Instead
So, I am sitting in the bagel shop this morning, poaching Internet access from somewhere nearby (the shop does not officially have wifi), reading an excellent piece by Tom Engelhardt on the administration's pursuit of absolute power, when a sudden and simple question occurred to me.
What's the endgame?
I looked deep into my bagel and found no answer. A couple of hours later, I still don't have one.
There's a presidential election coming up in 2008 (1033 days from today, actually), an election in which He Who Shall Not Be Named is ineligible to run. Dick Cheney has said he won't run. It's hard to imagine the current cabal in the White House giving up power merely because the Constitution says they have to.
So what are they angling toward? Are they fairly certain that any Repug successor from the current field would continue their policies as if they were still in office?
A corollary question to that one: Do they feel as though they've got the 2008 election sufficiently wired already, no matter who runs on the Repug side, so the Democrats can't possibly win?
Or do they mean to accumulate so much power that they can simply refuse to leave when their time is up--whether on January 20, 2009, or sooner if impeached and convicted of something?
Worth remembering is that these are not the smartest people in the world, despite what they think of themselves. The Bush gang has, in fact, fucked up nearly everything they've touched since taking office. So it's hard to imagine that they'd be shrewd enough to implement a devious master plan that amounts to an overthrow of the existing American system of government without fucking that up, too.
Perhaps they have no plan, and they're merely accumulating all the power they can while they can because they can, and they'll use it as necessary for as long as they can. But what do they think they will use it for?
I am not merely fishing for comments here--I truly can't figure out where they see themselves in a year or two or three. Help a brother out. Tell me what you think they think.
Recommended Reading: From the Left Coaster, a complete list of Repug talking points on the spying scandal and how to refute them. Don't talk to a Bush supporter again before you read it.
So, I am sitting in the bagel shop this morning, poaching Internet access from somewhere nearby (the shop does not officially have wifi), reading an excellent piece by Tom Engelhardt on the administration's pursuit of absolute power, when a sudden and simple question occurred to me.
What's the endgame?
I looked deep into my bagel and found no answer. A couple of hours later, I still don't have one.
There's a presidential election coming up in 2008 (1033 days from today, actually), an election in which He Who Shall Not Be Named is ineligible to run. Dick Cheney has said he won't run. It's hard to imagine the current cabal in the White House giving up power merely because the Constitution says they have to.
So what are they angling toward? Are they fairly certain that any Repug successor from the current field would continue their policies as if they were still in office?
A corollary question to that one: Do they feel as though they've got the 2008 election sufficiently wired already, no matter who runs on the Repug side, so the Democrats can't possibly win?
Or do they mean to accumulate so much power that they can simply refuse to leave when their time is up--whether on January 20, 2009, or sooner if impeached and convicted of something?
Worth remembering is that these are not the smartest people in the world, despite what they think of themselves. The Bush gang has, in fact, fucked up nearly everything they've touched since taking office. So it's hard to imagine that they'd be shrewd enough to implement a devious master plan that amounts to an overthrow of the existing American system of government without fucking that up, too.
Perhaps they have no plan, and they're merely accumulating all the power they can while they can because they can, and they'll use it as necessary for as long as they can. But what do they think they will use it for?
I am not merely fishing for comments here--I truly can't figure out where they see themselves in a year or two or three. Help a brother out. Tell me what you think they think.
Recommended Reading: From the Left Coaster, a complete list of Repug talking points on the spying scandal and how to refute them. Don't talk to a Bush supporter again before you read it.
